Omaha daily bee., 1887-12-05

large vessels and left to die, when the
shells open Of their own accord. The
shells are then removed, but the oysters
themselves are left in buckets till they
become dccomposed, when they are well
stirred. The pearls sink to the bottom,
and the remainder is poured of. II may
be readily inferred that the odor in the
camps OF pearl seekers is more powerful
than pleasant. The innumerablc flies,
sand-ilies and mosquitoes that swarm
around do not tend TO make the neigh
borhood more soothing to the feelings.
II the end of the pearls connection
with the oyster is offensive to our nos
trils, the beginning Of it is supposed to
be not less offensive TO the excellent
bivalvc itself. The pearl has its origin
in the efforts Of the oyster To protect
itself from the irritation caused by the
presence of some foreign body between
the shell and its mantle. as the soft skin
of the oyster is technically termed. The
foreign matter may. perhaps, in some
instances. be a grain OF sand, but is be-
lieved TO be more often either parasite
of some kind, or, perhaps, an egg
belonging to the oyster herself.
To mitigate the suffering caused
by this vexations intruder. the oys-
ter deposits therein coating OF
the same material as that of which the
shell is composed, and when once this
process has begun, ii continues till in
time the pearl grows large enough to
kill the oyster. IL this occurs the shells
open of their own accord. The pearl is
soon lost to man. This danger and
others that attend the lives Of oysters,
even in their deep sea home. makes it
inadvisable to leave the bank too long
untished, though. of course. so long as
the oyster continues to live the older
they are, the larger the pearls they
contain. 1t is thus matter of doubt at
what age il is most advisable that oys-
ters should be fished for, but the gen
eral opinion here seems to be that they
are at their best, on the average. when
four years old.
If the pearl is buried in the soft sub
stance of the oyster. it is round or pearl
shaped generally. and is called pearl.
or if very small, II seed PEARL If. on
the other hand, one side of the pearl is
adhering to the shell, while the other is
round, it is called n ''button pearl"
Sometimes a boring parasite makes its
way through the shell. but before it
gets quite through the oyster feels the
irritation and pressure which ii causes,
and deposits layer of pearly matter on
the shell itself This is called a pearl
blister. These are often found OF
great value. except as curiosities.
Linnnus. the "father of naturalists,"
received the honor of knighthood for
demon strating the possibility of artti-
cially inducing the formation of pearls
in the pearl bearing mussel But. as
has been the case with other European
inventions of which we have thought n
good deal, it has since turned out that
John Chinaman has been doing this
thing for couple thousand years or so.
The Chinese method is to take the mus
sci from the river, carefully force the
shells little way apart and insert be-
tween the mantle of the oyster and one
of the shells few little pellets of clay,
tiny pearls or foreign bodies of some
kind. When this has been done the
oyster is turned over, and the poor fell
low is obliged to submit to similar un-
comfortable process on his other side.
He is then put back into n pond where
he is kept well and tat by n diet more
nourishing than nice. After a few
months. or sometimes year or two he
is again taken from his bed, his pearls
are taken out and he is eaten.